


Love Is A Battlefield

by mrandmrslegendary



Category: Football RPF
Genre: M/M, mainly centered around Thomas (and Lewy)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 09:55:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12010302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrandmrslegendary/pseuds/mrandmrslegendary
Summary: A story of two soldiers, that are supposed to be sworn enemies, fighting for two different countries and meeting during the battle of Stalingrad which left behind a severely injured Thomas, a German soldier who had been in resistance and was sent to the first front as a punishment for his attempt to take down the regime.Robert Lewandowski, a red army soldier, finds a very weakened and almost dying Thomas on the empty battlefield.Breaking his oath, he saves the unfamiliar man's life, something that makes the two of them fall in love with each other instantly.Both man not destined to fall in love with each other share an epic love story during the most brutal war the world has ever seen.The story focuses on the 21-year-old Thomas Müller, the events coining his youth, the beginning of his resistance and the losses he has to witness in his attempt to complete his mission and free the country from the deadly dictatorship.





	Love Is A Battlefield

**Author's Note:**

> I chose not to choose any archive warnings in order not to give too many spoilers but a lot of those apply to this story, it tells the story of a man that has to face the war and how he falls in love with someone he isn't supposed to love. It's also a story of resistance, war and the cruelty of the nazi regime.  
> Keep in mind that this isn't a lighthearted story but describes the brutality of war and strong hate opposed to the strength of love, hope and companionship.  
> This story includes a lot of flashbacks and flashforwards since it tells about Thomas Müller's youth so don't get too confused about it.
> 
> Since I usually write rather lighthearted stories, this was supposed to be some kind of experiment. Let me know what you think of it in the comments. :)

"We lost in our fight with the destiny, because..... we fell in love with each other."

\- TIFFANY SANTOS 

23 August 1942, Stalingrad: 

Thomas Müller a, 21-year-old man who was forced to serve his country in a war that did not only contradict with his ideal and everything believed, was fighting on the front of his country in a reign of terror and looking back, the darkest time Germany ever had to face. 

Growing up, the Bavarian has believed in the equality of people, he even showed resistance towards the regime something that only resulted in him being sent to the direct front, the one where the soldiers were barely equipped, only equipped with a gun and no such thing as bulletproof vests or anything that might save their life in case of a “coincidence”. Those soldiers were known not to make it for too long, especially not a rough, cold winter marching through Russia having no other chance than to accept their faith that it’s them who have to sacrifice their lives for the greater good, the good of community and for their unconditional love to their country, at least that’s what the regime propagated. The enemy was clearly pointed out, everyone who doesn’t share their belief or values, was to get rid of, the more painful the procedure the better. 

They say with 21 years you haven’t been through too much but at that young age, the young man with a big heart and a rather naïve view of the world had experienced more than most people have in a lifetime. In the year, he and his friends graduated school, the political situation of his home country drastically worsened with Hitler getting into power, getting rid of (political) enemies and eliminating everyone who didn’t fit into a society of followers, except that Thomas Müller has always been the one to be a leader. 

Thomas finds himself in a society in a regime that has only taught them how to hate and how to kill within the blink of an eye. A regime that tried to suppress its people, took all democratic values away from them as well as their freedom of speech, assembly and the freedom of press censoring everything that didn’t please them. In Thomas’ surrounding, people started disappearing under “mysterious” reasons that weren’t too mysterious if one thought about it, in the beginning, deputes opposing the beliefs of NSDAP started disappearing, then his Jewish neighbours he grew up with. They even took the children with them, Thomas can recall waking up one Saturday morning hearing a lot of screaming, the ones of familiar voices as well as gunshots targeting the mother of the family killing her in cold blood and without any sign of regret. The man remembers sitting at the window of his room, witnessing the brutal, shocking scene and he could never forget the horrors of that Saturday morning. He felt so helpless and would have loved to intervene but they were armed and he has never held a gun in his whole life, the children, 7 at that time, and the father of the family had to witness their beloved wife and mother being murdered not because she has done something wrong but because she didn’t fit into a society, a paradox society of everyone watching and most people not even trying to stand up. 

He remembers the children crying, running to their mother and screaming that she can’t leave and should come back. The mother trying to fight for her children who needed her at such a young age, she wanted to survive, no, she needed to survive. Trying to stand up, the bleeding is only getting worse with her white t-shirt soon being overtaken by the red colour of her blood which was streaming out of the wound underneath her chest where the SS man had aimed and shot, determined, with cold eyes and not a sparkle of regret for taking a mother’s life, a mother of two children and the wife to an equally poor man. Thomas has known them in person, the young mother had worked as a nurse before the NSDAP came into power, she has always been a role model to Thomas. 

On rainy Sunday evenings, after her night shift and some overtime, she worked on becoming more than just a nurse, she often showed up at Thomas’ door asking him if he wanted to come over since she once again backed far too many cookies. He grew up with the twins, a boy and a girl, and Thomas was like a family member to them, they never treated him differently for not being a Jew or having a different origin, they have always been loving people that wanted to change the world for the better. After the regime took over control, she lost her job due to her religion and the family barely made it through the day because that money, even if it was little, was missing. Staring out of the window as if he was caught in a terrible nightmare, he wanted to run outside and stop those people from doing, even more, harm but the shock made him freeze. 

He could no longer move, was standing there helplessly, a young boy with the belief in a better world, a peaceful world was no caught in a nightmare from which he could never possibly wake up from. Wanting to look away, the Bavarian realizes he can’t but how should he fight two tall, strong men that would take him down without even blinking. Hoping for someone to help, the young boy observes the surrounding of the familiar house, seeing his neighbours sitting by the window as if this was some kind of entertainment or cinema. Everyone was watching the scene, showing even amusement about the family’s misfortune instead of thinking to reunite and make those man stop, they were clearly in the majority and could have stopped this heartbreaking scene. 

Thomas, who can’t stop the tears from rolling down his rosy cheek, is still observing the heart-wrenching scene with the father telling the man to take him but let his children go. The tough man, a former policeman and not a man to normally mess with, fought with tears, tears of desperation, fear and mourning. 

“Please let them go, they are young and haven’t done anything. They still have their life ahead of them…-“, begs the neighbour to let his children go and take him as a hostage instead. 

“I will do whatever you want me to do if you let my children go.” 

He pushes himself in front of his beloved twins and up till this day, the young boy has never seen this man cry and he never wanted to because this made this scene even more painful. He asked them to shoot him, get rid of his corpse in cold blood but not to even think of touching one of his beloved children… Turns out that the strongest love is the one between a parent and their child, an undying and unconditional love, a love a parent would die for just to save the life or lives of their children. 

The other armed SS man shot into the man’s leg for him not to stand properly anymore, so focused on dealing with the pain and stopping the bleeding in some way, the other armed one takes him with him and the father has no way to escape. Nobody even thought about asking where they wanted to take him because everyone knew the answer. Leaving the children behind because the weakened man wasn’t strong enough to resist anymore and from that point, everything went fast, they even took the children with them but they didn’t take them to the same concentration camp. They took the children to a concentration camp that wasn’t specialized on eliminating the enemies of the regime but to a concentration camp where they would have to work day and night, two very skinny, young children that were already weakened and probably wouldn’t even make it through the first week. The second SS man dragged them into the car and took them away, leaving the lifeless corpse of the woman behind, a murder her own husband and children had to witness, the worst punishment imaginable for a family that has never done anything wrong. 

But that won’t stay the only incidence Thomas will have to witness. 

His friends and Thomas had met up, writing flyers and spreading them in the whole school, throwing them from the upper floor so that they had the opportunity to throw them in the floors beneath where most classrooms could be found. The flyers asked their classmates to rebel, to show any sort of resistance, asked them to encourage in politics and start to fight the upcoming ideals of the regime. They wanted to enlighten people to stand up for what they believe in, against the hate they are taught to be felt but they didn’t want to fight violence with violence. Contrary to most people that actually were in resistance, fighting violence with violence won’t get the country a democratic and peaceful basis, it wasn’t that simple if you have a society of a lot of followers and not just one leader without any followers. 

Thomas and his old school friends, Benedikt and Mats, two men that had fallen in love for each other in a homophobic society, that has not only taught every single member to hate people for their race and origin as well as political view, upbringing and sexual orientation. 

The two men had fallen for each other the first time, they had seen each other, two very young men who were still in the process of finding each other were told that what they are feeling was wrong. 

That love was wrong. 

But how could something that would bring out the best in them, something making them happier than they have ever been, be immoral or wrong? 

Something called love. 

They decided to fight the injustice and brutality of a society that propagated itself as a society of values when definitely the opposite was the case. With Hitler getting into power and the introduction of the dictatorship with all its restrictions, their mission to educate and enlighten people, to wake up people and not make them follow blindly what this regime propagates, was the biggest challenge the three of them would ever have to face. They wanted to fight ignorance with education and intellect, Thomas was coined by his Jewish neighbours being taken away to a concentration camp and everyone looking away. So, did he, he also looked away and even though his mother had told him that he isn’t to blame since he was just a child, he made it his life’s mission to change things. With his father, an SPD deputy, being killed at the beginning of the reign of terror when Thomas was just a child and he couldn’t remember his father too much, it was as if not having a father never really bothered him. His single mother had worked as a nurse as well, working night shift after night shift to somehow get Thomas and her through the next day. 

The years passed and Thomas, Mats and Benedikt’s plans got more and more precise of how exactly they wanted to spread knowledge and fight the propaganda without getting caught and risking their own lives. One rainy Sunday morning, Thomas witnesses his mother coming home from her night shift with tears streaming down her face and blood along her clothes, she had stitches on her hand, open wounds that were running deep and bleeding without stopping, the way her tears didn’t stop. 

“What’s wrong, mum?” asks the young man at the age of 18 with his mother, a strong woman who has never cried in front of Thomas break down in his arms and crying her eyes out. 

“Thomas, I..-“, insists the woman speak but her voice is breaking “I want you to be careful, we are living in a terrible world.” 

He nods understanding and agreeing with everything his mother has said, she was the only one to know about the mission except for his two best friends, she didn’t support her son’s attempt to play the hero but she knew she couldn’t stop the stubborn man anyway. She just wanted him to be careful. His mother excused herself, walked into her bedroom locked the door behind her, something she has never done before and cries into her white sheets not knowing how to get through this. She didn’t have to say anything for Thomas to know what was going on, he smelled an unfamiliar male cologne on his mother’s nurse uniform even though she was at work. 

The open, bleeding wounds and the deep stitches only made him conclude one thing: Rape. 

And as much as he wanted to comfort his mother, he knew that she needed to be alone right now and he was plotting his revenge, the last drop that made the barrel overflow. 

Years later and several failed attempts of resistance towards the regime, Thomas finds himself in the front army fighting for a country that did not only take his father, his mother’s dignity, his best friends’ lives and lives of countless people that have never done anything wrong just because they didn’t please a heartless, cruel regime. His body is prepared for a fight after a rough, cold winter marching across Russia heading to Stalingrad where they are facing the red army, a very tough battle was awaiting especially for the already weakened men and a man trying to find his identity between both fronts, the Nazis and the red army, he deeply despises. But there was no escape for him, he had no other choice than fight otherwise he wouldn’t even make it through this day. The generally skinny man had lost weight drastically, he was very weakened by the conditions he had to face, his cold eyes have lost all colour, all love and all determination inside of them. 

Slowly but surely, Thomas is in the process of realizing that maybe he is turning into one of them, one of the people he deeply despises. He no longer felt like a human but a machine that was aimed to kill, show no regret and having no feelings. 

After all that has happened to him the past few years in this reign of terror, the regime he blamed for all the misfortunes that occurred in his life, the only feeling left, he knew was hate. Burning hate to destroy everyone and everything that wanted to destroy him, no matter the costs, sometimes this could even mean taking someone’s life. As a soldier, you can’t be afraid to kill, you have to be sure that you are fighting for the right thing something the young soldier highly doubted as well as he doubted the ideals and values of the red army, the mutual enemy, of his despised country and himself. 

He wanted to make it his new mission to destroy him with an upcoming feeling of hate taking over his exhausted, suffering body that would probably not make it through the whole winter. Lost in his own thoughts, he is completely losing control of the situation when being distracted and feeling an aching pain in his left leg not making it possible to stand without help anymore. All he could see was blood streaming out of the bullet wound, it wasn't just some drops but it felt like the blood streaming and him losing, even more, blood with an already weakened body. 

Thomas who was never able to see blood started fainting in the middle of the battlefield and forgetting about everything, it feels like everything is spinning around him. He is surrounded by the loud sound of guns and other kinds of weapons with the man not being able to move, this might be his final moment of his life, a life that had ended far too early for him to achieve taking down a regime of horror. 

No longer being able to concentrate, everything around him just turned black, he couldn’t even fail pain anymore, he couldn’t feel anything which was kind of relieving but he was sure this was the ending as he was closing his eyes in the hope for this to end without any pain. 

Around him the battle had continued all night, a lot of lifeless corpses terribly bleeding were lying on the ground or severely injured people still fighting to stay alive although it’s a fight they are most likely to lose. The battlefield was no longer two fronts facing each other but the red blood of the living and the ones about to die dyeing the white, pure snow into a revengeful, hateful red symbolising hate, pain and death. A battle both sides can only lose, lightly equipped soldiers that probably wouldn’t even make it through this winter shot at foreigners just because their governments propagated them to do so. 

Thomas could hear someone slowly approaching, the soldiers had left him alone because they thought this extremely skinny man wouldn’t make it anyway as he was lying there bleeding without a foreseeable ending. He could feel someone gently touching his leg as it was in the middle of the night and both troops decided to withdraw and rest to recover for the next upcoming days, a battle the German soldiers didn’t assume to be that tough. They aren’t used to the tough conditions of a Russian winter and not prepared for it, only having their uniforms that didn’t warm them and weapons that couldn’t rescue them too much. Their situation was almost hopeless and the German side had a lot of losses to witness, the “total victory” Goebbels had propagated wasn’t anywhere near reach and even most of the soldiers were already aware that this was a battle that would cost Germany the victory and countless soldiers on both sides their lives. 

A young man and he were the only ones left on the battlefield with him lying on the ground helplessly and not knowing what the unknown man was about to do. In a war the first rule is to never ever trust anyone, you can’t even trust your colleagues in a tough battle because everyone only cares about their survival. The young man was not only a complete stranger but also part of the red army making him the enemy but to Thomas’ surprise, he immediately dropped the weapon and got a first aid box, perhaps a paramedic. In this moment, the German knew he couldn’t trust his enemy who is armed on a battlefield when he is defenseless and likely on the edge of dying. 

“What are you doing?” wants the man to know, raising his eyebrow but being barely able to speak. 

“Stay quiet, they aren’t allowed to hear us”, whispers the man taking care of the severe wound and trying to make the bleeding stop something he wasn’t allowed to do, he wasn’t allowed to save a stranger, or worse an enemy’s life. 

The stranger gently and cautiously binds the wound up trying not to hurt the other man who was already biting his teeth to keep himself from screaming due to his unbearable pain. Quite a few minutes later, the Polish man something Thomas could figure out by his accent, was finished with taking care of the injured man when he was about to leave the man behind. 

“Please…-“, begs the German barely able to speak and trying to take the overwhelming pain “Don’t leave me alone.”

“I won’t”, whispers the handsome, tall stranger putting Thomas’ arm around his shoulder when deciding to carry him to the next village, something that was easier than thought with the very skinny Thomas and a very muscular Robert who was determined to help him. 

Looking at the man in awe, the Bavarian has to admit that his savior was the most handsome man he has ever seen in his life, his undone hair with those brown light curls falling into his stunning face and almost covering those gorgeous, shining blue eyes. 

Taking him to an empty house, Robert carries his enemy into the big, comfortable bed hoping for him to soon recover because the Polish man had always had a helper complex leading to him having worked as a paramedic. He doesn’t care that helping the defenseless man is illegal and could get him murdered, something about him is special, he isn’t like most Germans. At no point whatsoever the German made fun of his Polish origin something he had been used to since his youth, contrary to that Thomas is lying in the bed and the beautiful stranger is lovingly putting a blanket on him to keep him warm as well as lovingly staring at him when sitting next to his bed. The weakened man reaches for the paramedic’s hand and the other man taking it with a smile, softly caressing it when getting up and wishing him a good night. 

“I almost died today”, states the man, his hands terribly shaking and him clearly being scared something Robert could understand but something very atypical for a supposedly cold-hearted soldier and murderer. 

“I can’t sleep”. 

Tears are starting to fill his watery, cold eyes, that showed hate but not directed towards Robert but towards himself and an overwhelming fear taking control of his body graving someone to be there for him. The war made him lose his father, his two best friends, his neighbours and to some extent, even his mother who had never been the same again after the rape and who had cut off all social contacts. Thomas Müller, a 21-year-old man, is a man who had experienced more in 21 years than most people do in a lifetime and he never wants anyone to go through the same he does. He didn’t even wish for all of this to stop what most people assumed, the Bavarian accepted his faith and knew there would be no way to end a terrible, unfair and most over, overly brutal war that had ended too many lives way too early. 

In reality, all he had wanted was not to be alone, the young man had always someone to keep him company except for the time in which he was forced to serve for his country. “I’m here”, whispers the Polish man smiling lightly when lying next to the unknown man that could murder him in his sleep, something he trusted him not to do and that was the first time he ever trusted anyone. The man living in Warsaw has always been on his own with both parents dying early and having to get himself through life alone, the sight of the wounded German smiling at him and thanking him, melted his heart. 

“And I won’t leave you alone.” 

For the first time in his life, Robert Lewandowski felt needed. 

And for the first time in his life, Thomas Müller didn’t feel lonely. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you could use some lighthearted fluff after having finished that story, feel free to read:  
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/9095566


End file.
